Reinvent Albany

The language in the Moreland Commission’s report on legislative corruption is scathing, and validates what crusading journalists, watchdog groups and prosecutors have been saying for years: Albany is a place where laws are bought, and nothing will change until the “dysfunctional electoral and political systems ” are reformed.  The report calls for numerous sensible reforms including a small donor public matching program for political contributions like New York City’s and an independent campaign finance enforcement organization. Reinvent Albany applauds the report’s recommendations and look forward to it aggressively continuing its investigations. Like veteran Albany observer Bill Hammond at the Daily News, we also hope that the Commission will be given the time and independence to follow the money trail where it may lead.

Read the report embedded below, or download the full report here.

Last week, TechPresident published a thorough and well-written accounting of the city council’s hearing on the New York City’s open data law, the progress made in implementing it, and what remains to be done. Reinvent Albany and various members of the NYC Transparency Working Group attended and provided testimony about their experiences finding and using city data.

Reinvent Albany’s testimony begins, in substantive part:

“We strongly support the NYC Open Data Law and its intent. It’s a smart-phone era tool for opening up the valuable government information that has been gathered at great public expense. It makes that information vastly easier for everyone, in and out of government to use. The NYC Open Data Law is widely considered one of the best in the world, and we urge the council and the next administration to fully fund and support its implementation.

“The Open Data Law is working. It has led to the release of long sought datasets like the PLUTO and ACRIS tax lot and real estate databases, and 311 complaints. The City’s open data portal is being used by the public, advocates, apps developers and journalists. The NY Times and National Public Radio regularly cite and credit the open data portal. NYC Big Apps has given open data in NYC a big push, and apps like Roadify, Yelp and NYC Building Violations make government information more easily accessible. Government agencies are starting to use the city’s Open Data Portal for their own, easy, data retrieval. TLC has published data on medallion vehicles and drivers.”

Read Reinvent Albany’s entire testimony here.

To read the New York City Transparency Working Group’s report, NYC Open Data Law: Progress and Challenges, click the thumbnail above or right here.

Source: State of Politics

We’re posting the complaint and memo of law online for this lawsuit, because it raises timely issues of data privacy and security. This case is significant because it directly bears on security for data stored in the cloud. Information management stored on premises or with BOCES isn’t more secure. Whether or not In Bloom is a good platform, we don’t know, but it does speak to a need for more clarity and transparency about how New York State manages data.

In Bloom: Memo of Law

In Bloom: Request for Temporary Restraining Order